


Shaped by Clearest Blue

by AyraBelle



Series: You Were the Perfect Storm [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, M/M, Underage Drinking, they're responsible and safe but it's there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 05:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyraBelle/pseuds/AyraBelle
Summary: Lance’s family is not about to let his romantic soulmate spend Christmas alone, but his extended family doesn’t know that he’s matched up with a man.Keith was expecting to spend the holiday break in his apartment playing video games, but an invitation promises to show him just how hectic an extended family holiday can really be.





	Shaped by Clearest Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This is written for the Dragon Klance Bang - it features art by the wonderful [Nici](http://nicisa.tumblr.com/)! I'm glad to have some awesome arts for this series :D

The clock hit 90:00 and Keith couldn’t breathe. The Wildcats had the lead, but the Gladiators had the ball and there was going to be three minutes of stoppage time. That was plenty for a team like them.

Keith sprinted up the pitch to intercept but the ball was passed to the other side. One minute down.

He watched the Gladiators pass the ball around in an attempt to find an opening. The Wildcats swarmed, determined not to let them get one. Two minutes down.

The captain moved past Lance with a tricky bit of footwork and fired a shot at the goal. Rolo blocked it, but it deflected right back to the captain who shot again. Rolo made another spectacular save by the tips of his fingers and the Gladiator who picked it up shot wide of the net. Three minutes down.

The whistle trilled through the arena and Keith sank down to lay on his back. They did it – they were National Champions.

He wasn’t alone on the ground for long before the rest of his team swarmed and piled on top of him, yelling and cheering. They couldn’t stay because they still had to shake hands with the other team, but once that formality was over they were back to jumping and screaming. Coran was crying into an assistant’s shoulder and they were all barely able to compose themselves for the presentation of their trophy.

Lance’s mom and sister had made the trek to Texas for the match, so Lance ran over to the edge of the stands to celebrate with them once the presentation and photographs were finished.

“Good job, Lance!” Gabbi cheered as his mom swept Lance into a hug.

“We’re so proud of you,” his mom elaborated when Lance switched to hug Gabbi. It was a testament to how excited she was that she didn’t tease him for hugging her while he was all sweaty.

“And of your soulmate over there,” Gabbi added. “Do we get to meet him yet?”

Lance had held off on introducing his family to Keith – he said that it was because he didn’t want to overwhelm the guy, but honestly he didn’t want to jump the gun on anything in their relationship. Keith wanted to take things slow, and Lance didn’t want to scare him off. This seemed like the perfect opportunity, though.

“Sure!”

Shiro and Allura hadn’t been able to make the trip to the final match, so Keith wasn’t expecting anyone to be waiting for him. He was therefore confused when Lance grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the stands. “C’mon, I want you to meet a couple people.”

Keith was dragged to a stop in front of two people that looked a lot like Lance. Assuming this to be some of his family, Keith suddenly felt self-conscious. He had been thinking that he would like to meet Lance’s family, but now suddenly in front of some of them he cared more about disappointing. Still, he did his best to smile.

“Hey, this is Keith, my romantic soulmate. Keith, this is my mom and my big sister Gabriela,” Lance made the introductions. Keith reached out to shake hands, but Lance’s mom pulled him into a hug.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Keith,” she said, smiling at him.

“Call me Gabbi,” the big sister said, reaching over to pull him into another hug. Keith would have to brag to Shiro once he got back to his phone in his hotel room – all these hugs and he hadn’t yet frozen up or run away.

“I’m glad to meet you both as well,” Keith responded. “It’s nice that you were able to make it out here for the match.”

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Gabbi insisted. “Is your family here?”

Keith shook his head. “No, my brother and his romantic are going abroad to visit her family for Christmas, so they couldn’t make it here. They promised to be watching, though, so I’ll have to make sure they didn’t miss my goal.”

“That was an amazing shot,” Lance’s mom complimented him. “You really are an astounding player.”

Keith wasn’t used to that kind of praise, and from his romantic soulmate’s mom no less. “Thanks, Mrs de la Cruz.”

“Of course, Keith. You should come over for Christmas – we would love to get to spend more time with you.”

The offer surprised Keith – he definitely hadn’t expected that. Lance hadn’t either, and he rushed to Keith’s defense. “Mamá, you can’t just assume that he’ll be free like that! Maybe he has lots of plans and now has to feel bad turning you down!”

Keith didn’t have any plans, and he knew that Lance knew that fact. He wondered what the defense was about, but Mrs de la Cruz beat him to the response.

“Nonsense, Lance, the boy said that his brother and future sister-in-law would be gone, and he didn’t mention any other family when I asked about family being here,” she reasoned, pausing a moment in case Keith wanted to explain about any other family members he had omitted before. He didn’t, because there were no others. So she took his silence as confirmation and continued. “Besides, we live in the same town as your school so even if he was working or something he could come over on Christmas Day at least. No one should spend Christmas Day alone.”

Keith didn’t respond right away, so Gabbi spoke up. “It’s no use trying to deny it, she’s adamant about family things like this. And you’ll be family eventually, so we’d like to see more of you. Lance has refused to share you with us till now.”

“I have not!” Lance protested. “I just didn’t want to scare him away – just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean he’ll like all of you!”

Keith laughed, and Mrs de la Cruz feigned offense. “How could he not, we’re a delight! You don’t have to say yes, of course,” she continued seriously, looking at Keith directly. “We would love to have you but understand if you don’t want to come over.”

In spite of all of Lance’s protests, he really did want Keith to meet his family. Now that Gabbi and his mom had met Keith, Lance knew that the rest would be impatient to meet him and Lance wanted to show his awesome soulmate off to the rest of his family.

With Shiro and Allura heading to England for Christmas, Keith hadn’t been looking forward to spending the day on his own. They couldn’t afford to get Keith a ticket as well, so he kept his disappointment hidden and encouraged Shiro and Allura to go and enjoy their time there. Allura hadn’t been home in a while, so he didn’t want them to miss out on this opportunity just because they felt guilty about having to leave him behind.

The offer from Lance’s mom, therefore, was a welcome surprise and Keith felt himself smiling. “As long as you’re sure it would be alright, I would love to spend time with your family over the holiday.”

Lance saw his mom giving him a sly smile before she turned a genuine smile on Keith. “Excellent, I’m glad that you’ll join us. Feel free to drop by whenever you want and stay as long as you like – there will be a lot of family over so you won’t be in the way of anything,” she promised him.

Lance felt his heart stutter slightly when Keith gave a radiant smile back. “Thanks, Mrs de la Cruz. I look forward to seeing you again there. Now, I’d better pack up my things so that we can catch our bus back to the hotel – you want me to throw your things together as well, Lance?”

Now Lance saw Gabbi shooting him a significant look that promised many questions when they next saw each other, but he appreciated the offer nonetheless. “Nah, I’ll be over in a moment. Thanks, though.”

Keith nodded and bade good bye to Lance’s family before he jogged back to the team’s bench. Lance waved to him and made sure that he was out of earshot before he turned back to his mom and sister.

“I like him,” Gabbi said simply with a nod, smiling at Lance. “He seems nice.”

“He seems like a wonderful boy,” Lance’s mom added with a nod of her own. “I’m glad that he’ll join us for some of Christmas, I can’t wait to get to know him better. Do make sure he knows that he can stay as long as he wants – I hate to think of him having to spend the break alone on campus.”

“He won’t be alone that much,” Lance promised. “Pidge will be there for a few days and then she returns right after New Year’s, so they’ll have company for some of the time.”

“He’s a good one for you,” Gabbi said, making Lance flush. “You’ve got yourself a good romantic soulmate.”

Lance grinned widely in agreement, but he knew that he had to get all his gear packed up so he had to bid his mom and sister a quick goodbye and run over to shove his things in his bag so that he wasn’t the last one ready to go.

That evening, after the team dinner some of the over twenty-one team members were planning on sneaking out to a bar to celebrate. This included Lance, who was Keith’s roommate – the little perks of being teammates who also happen to be soulmates.  Lance invited Keith along, but Keith didn’t bring his fake ID so he used calling Shiro and Allura as an excuse to duck out. Lance nodded in understanding and left Keith alone in their room.

“Congratulations!” Shiro and Allura chorused upon picking up Keith’s video call, crowding to get in to the frame together. “Seriously, that was an amazing goal,” Shiro continued.

“Thanks,” Keith responded with a wide smile. “I wish you guys could have been here.”

“We wish so too,” Allura agreed. “But at least we got to see your goal! And it was so well timed, that close to the end.”

That gave Keith pause. He hadn’t been the one to score late in the match, his goal was off a free kick in the first half. He decided to test something. “Yeah, it was rough getting through those big guys, but I managed to find a route around.”

“And what a bit of tricky footwork!” Shiro complimented him, cementing Keith’s theory. He started laughing as Shiro continued his thought. “That was really slick kiddo – why are you laughing?”

“Did you happen to notice that the goal you’re complimenting me on was scored by a blonde, by chance?” Keith said through his giggles. “That wasn’t my goal – you didn’t actually see my goal, did you?”

Shiro looked mortified and Allura pumped a fist triumphantly. “I told you that wasn’t him! He insisted that the color just looked strange due to the quality of the stream we were watching,” Allura told Keith, who was laughing hysterically at his brother now. Shiro had his face in his hands and was close to falling out of the frame as he moaned.

“Did you see my goal, or just Sal’s?” Keith asked. Shiro just groaned loudly, face still in his hands, so Allura responded.

“We got caught in traffic and so missed the first half,” she said apologetically. “Was your goal in that time?”

Keith nodded and launched into a retelling for them. In the meantime, Lance had his fourth shot in his hand and cheered with his teammates as they all downed their drinks. When they were finished, everyone turned to look at Rolo in utter confusion.

Sal was the first to speak. “Rolo, what did we just drink?” They had to yell to be heard over the music.

“Ouzo!” Rolo responded. “It’s my favorite! Not many places even have it, so I was excited to see a bottle behind the bar here.”

Lance was standing next to Sal, and simultaneously they both took healthy swigs of their beers to wash down the taste. Lance had never been a fan of licorice, and that shot was basically concentrated black licorice juice.

“That’s great Rolo, but I think we’re going to let Roach pick the shots from now on,” Sal said, clapping Rolo on the shoulder. Lance agreed heartily, raising his glass to that statement. He had only been drinking (legally) for a few months now, but that shot had been even more disgusting than the worst beers he had ever tried.

Even as Lance enjoyed his time out with his teammates, he wondered how Keith was doing back at the hotel. Almost as if he read Lance’s mind, Sal announced that he was going to head back to the hotel, and stop at a liquor store on the way. A cheer went up from the team and they all moved to pay off their tabs and find their way back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, the seniors made sure that none of the coaches were close to Sal’s room as the younger guys texted the rest of the team where to meet. Lance texted Keith immediately before passing the message on to some other teammates, and when Keith still hadn’t responded Lance went to their room to make sure that he was alright.

He could feel the effects of the alcohol, so it took him a few moments to get his key to work but he felt absurdly proud of himself when the door finally swung open after only two tries. Keith was still talking to his brother, so Lance draped himself across Keith’s lap.

“Keeeith,” he said dramatically. “Come celebrate with me.”

He heard a giggle and grinned to himself. He liked flirting with Shiro’s romantic soulmate – especially since they both knew that nothing would come of said flirting – and he always appreciated that she enjoyed his theatrics. For her benefit he rolled himself over, making Keith grunt, and waved at the phone. “Hey, Shiro and Allura. Tell Keith that he needs to come and celebrate our being awesome with the rest of his team.”

“Go ahead,” Shiro said with a grimace. “Just be careful, yeah?”

Keith gave an exasperated sigh. “Of course, Shiro. I always am.”

Allura patted Shiro’s head and waved to Keith and Lance. “Have fun, you two!”

Lance waved back as Keith said good bye and ended the video call. He then immediately looked down at Lance who was still sprawled in his lap. “Please tell me you didn’t go to a bar just to drink overpriced cheap beer as a celebration.”

“I didn’t only have beer,” Lance defended himself, crossing his arms with a huff. “We also did some shots.”

Keith grinned. “Oh, far be it for me to cast doubt on your sorority girl status. Were they colorful and pretty?”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “Three of them were, for your information. The fourth was some gross liquor that Rolo likes and no one else did. And I don’t think I appreciate your tone.”

Keith just smiled wider. “Well, I think I saw you sent me a text about a party in Sal’s room so come on, Delta Lambda Gamma, let’s go celebrate.”

Lance jumped up. “I’m just drunk enough to not remember what those letters are supposed to be, so remember to tell me tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s party!”

When they arrived, there was a game of Kings about to start so they both grabbed a beer and sat down to join. It ended up being more of an argument than a game. Everyone played by different rules and Rolo insisted on doing the Little Green Man rule that everyone else hated. Keith mostly enjoyed just sitting back and watching the drama unfold.

Afterwards Keith, feeling tipsy himself, helped a stumbling Lance back to their room. Lance wasn’t about to admit it, but he wasn’t as drunk as he was acting. He just really enjoyed being held this close by Keith and didn’t want it to end. Keith got them inside and sat Lance down on his bed before getting two glasses of water. He sat down next to Lance and held out the second glass, which Lance downed before leaning over to kiss the corner of Keith’s mouth.

“Thanks, you’re the best.”

When Lance leaned back, Keith was staring at him with wide eyes and that sobered Lance right up. Oh no, he had been so careful to not go too fast for Keith and now he just ruined everything, now his soulmate was going to hate him–

Lance’s internal panic was starting to bleed onto his face when Keith spoke. “My first kiss and that’s all I get? Man, this soulmate thing is a rip-off.”

That stopped Lance’s thoughts in their tracks. He looked at Keith, who was smiling slyly, and leaned in – careful to go slowly in case he had interpreted that incorrectly.

Keith watched Lance’s panic die, and smiled. Lance had been amazing about accepting Keith’s reluctance towards the whole soulmate thing – making sure not to go too fast for Keith and making sure that he was alright with them. And Keith was – he was more than alright, he was starting to want more. He knew that Lance was ready too, so when Lance started leaning in slowly Keith reached over to pull him in for a proper kiss.

It was awkward at first – noses bumped and teeth clacked – but Lance snaked an arm around Keith’s torso and deepened the kiss as they found a rhythm. Lance wasn’t sure how long it was before they both had to pull apart and get some air. Lance rested his forehead against Keith’s and wondered if anything else would ever be able to beat this weekend.

“We should probably get some sleep,” Keith pointed out, glancing away to look at the clock. “We need to be up in four hours to pack up and get to the airport.”

Lance sighed but had to admit that Keith was right. “Yeah, I guess we should.” He gave Keith another quick kiss, heart leaping at the fact that he could do that now, and got up to brush his teeth. When he exited the bathroom, he only paused long enough to take off his jeans before getting under the covers and promptly falling fast asleep.

There wasn’t a single person on the bus the following morning that wasn’t groggy, hungover, or still half-asleep. Even those that didn’t drink were not immune to the general mood and it was a quiet bus ride. Thankfully the airport wasn’t busy – the holiday travel rush hadn’t started yet – and the entire team was on the plane and asleep before takeoff. Keith and Lance sat next to each other, Lance asleep on Keith’s shoulder and Keith leaning against Lance’s head to get some more sleep himself.

When they exited the plane in California, they were greeted by a pep band playing the school’s fight song and a small crowd of people cheering for them. No matter how tired they were before, that managed to perk everyone right up. Sal was carrying the trophy and hoisted it above his head, earning a cheer from everyone. Keith saw Shiro and Allura and ran over to greet them while Lance was hugging his dad and older brothers.

“At least you’re here, since you didn’t even see my goal,” Keith joked with Shiro and Allura as he hugged them. Shiro groaned and Allura laughed.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Shiro asked.

“Nope.” Keith shook his head. “You’re a terrible soulmate – I bet Pidge saw it.” Shiro just raised an eyebrow, and Keith conceded the point. “Ok, I bet she didn’t but if she had I’m sure she would have been able to tell if it was actually me or not.”

Shiro looked like he had a retort ready, but Keith’s coach was calling the team together so Keith had to go. He bid Shiro and Allura a quick good bye and ran over to where everyone was gathered. They were loaded onto another bus to get back to campus, and thankfully it was a short drive because everyone was still tired even after the excitement of their welcome home.

Back at his apartment Keith was greeted by Pidge’s cat, Rover. Pidge herself didn’t seem to be home, so Keith fed the cat and decided that his bed was too far and collapsed on the couch. His phone buzzed in his pocket, so he leaned and twisted to get it out and see what it wanted.

 **Captain Sal:** Hey, I took this picture on the plane. You’re both adorable.

Attached was a picture of him and Lance sleeping on the plane ride back from Texas. Keith grinned to himself and set it as his phone background picture before moving to the other text conversation.

 **The Tailor:** Hey so since we’re all official now  
**The Tailor:** (at least I think we are?)  
**The Tailor:** I would really like to take you out to dinner this evening.  
**The Tailor:** If we’re not all official yet, then we can invite Pidge and Hunk  
**The Tailor:** You know, to turn it into a not date.

Keith smiled to himself as he read Lance’s rambling texts but hadn’t even started typing a response when the door burst open and Pidge appeared. She proceeded to pounce on him where he was still lying on the couch and completely winded him. He dropped his phone as he tried to get air back into his lungs.

“Congratulations!” she cheered, not bothering to move to make it easier for him to breathe. “And not just on your awesome goal. Well done finally kissing Lance.”

Keith rolled over to knock her off and open up his lungs. After a few breaths, he could speak again. “Technically he kissed me first.”

Pidge waved her hand. “Details. What matters is that you kissed and I won’t have to raise your dowry in order to get Lance to take you after all.”

Keith laughed, remembering the weekend Lance insisted they all watch some historical romance that his sister loved. To cope with the fact that they didn’t want to be there, Keith and Pidge decided to figure out what Keith’s dowry would be so that Lance would take him and it evolved into the four of them planning dowries for both Lance and Keith. “Wasn’t my dowry just those three extra cat toys that Rover doesn’t like and that weird dime that we found on the ground?”

“Well, Rover started playing with one of the toys while you were gone, so now it’s just two cat toys and the weird dime,” Pidge amended, sitting up and leaning her arms on the couch next to Keith.

Keith nodded. “Yeah, sounds about right. Good thing we’re soulmates, that dowry wouldn’t attract a respectable man. What’s Lance’s dowry?”

“Hunk takes care of that,” Pidge told him, shrugging. “It changed a lot in the past few months, so I stopped paying attention.”

Keith’s phone buzzed again, interrupting their conversation and making Pidge jump – it seemed she had landed on it. “Speaking of Lover Boy, he’s texting you,” she said, handing him the phone. “I need to go work on a group project, but if you want to get food then just send me a text and I’ll tell them to stuff it. They’re all morons anyways.”

“Pidge, you are a paragon of teamwork and cooperation,” Keith deadpanned, taking his phone.

 **The Tailor:** sooooooooo my phone tells me that you saw the previous texts  
**The Tailor:** and you haven’t responded.  
**The Tailor:** You can say no, it’s really ok.  
**Star Boy:** Sorry, Pidge came in and attacked me and I dropped my phone.  
**Star Boy:** I’d like to do dinner. With just you.  
**The Tailor:** Woo! I’ll meet you at your place at 6 – I know where I want to go.  
**Star Boy:** See you then.

With that to look forward to, Keith unpacked his bag from the weekend and got his school things ready for the upcoming week. It was the week before finals, and Keith had a lot of studying in his near future.

In his even nearer future, though, was a date with Lance. Keith wasn’t regretting the fact that he had wanted to take things slower than standard soulmate-speed between them; because of his reluctance he and Lance had become good friends. Keith had no idea where they would be going that evening, though, so he showered and chose an outfit that (he hoped) wouldn’t look out of place anywhere.

Lance was a walking mess of nerves as he got ready for dinner. He couldn’t believe that he was finally going on a date with Keith, and he was determined to not mess anything up. He had never been this nervous about going on a date, and Lance could tell that Hunk didn’t know what to do about it.

“Dude, you’re romantic soulmates,” he tried to reassure Lance, who was getting into a fight with his hair. “He’s going to like you.”

“That’s the problem!” Lance objected emphatically. He finally got the strand to lie down just right and was able to face his friend. “We’re romantic soulmates, but we’ve only been friends so far. What if he decides that he likes me as a friend – not as a romantic soulmate?”

Hunk reached out and grabbed Lance’s shoulders, forcing him to stop vibrating and shut up. “Lance. Take a deep breath.” Lance complied. “Now – you’re going to go to get Keith and walk to the restaurant. You’re going to have a great time. And you’re _not_ going to let your thoughts spiral into this level, alright?”

Lance gave a nod and small smile. “I’ll do my best. Thanks, buddy.”

Hunk smiled back and spun Lance to the door. “Now go get yo’ man!”

Lance laughed as he slipped his shoes on and walked over to Keith’s apartment. When the door opened, Lance felt his smile grow. Keith looked great. When Lance and Keith made it to the restaurant, Lance saw Keith’s face break into a grin. They had to watch what they ate during the season, but now that it was over they could eat the best pizza in town.

“So, how was your day?” Lance asked when they were seated and looking over the menu.

Keith shrugged. “Not too bad, thankfully I wasn’t too tired after the weekend.”

Lance nodded. “Same here.”

Before they could continue, the waiter came over and asked for their orders. Lance ordered a fruity cocktail, causing Keith to snigger.

“Delta Lambda Gamma,” he laughed once their orders were placed.

“Oh yeah! What does that mean again?” Lance asked. “I forgot…”

“It’s the Greek letters for D, L, and C. Your last name is de la Cruz – D, L, and C.”

The conversation flowed easily from there and they shared a kiss when Lance walked Keith back to his apartment. As good as the date had been, though, they weren’t able to see much of each other the following weeks as they both got to studying and then taking finals. Once those were finally over, campus quieted as students left for the break. Keith and Pidge enjoyed the less-occupied apartment building by blasting music and yelling at video games as they decompressed from the semester. Lance knew better than to interrupt their tradition (one semester he had tried and been promptly scared for his life as video game controllers and curses were hurled at him) so he waited until the Monday after finals to knock on their apartment door.

Pidge was the one to open the door, and she scowled at him. “What do you want?”

Lance gave her a wide smile. “You know, Pidgey, if I didn’t have a permanent mark on my body that says we are soulmates I would think that you hated me.”

“Those aren’t mutually-exclusive, you know,” Pidge grumbled, opening the door anyways. Lance was not put off by her comment and ruffled her hair as he walked by, laughing as she swatted at him. Inside the apartment, Keith was pouring himself cereal for lunch in a sweatshirt and gym shorts – without classes or work to care about neither he nor Pidge had bothered to get dressed for the day. As Lance entered, though, Keith suspected that his lack of plans was about to change.

Lance saw Keith with his hair pulled back a lot – that was usually what he did with it for matches. This was something different, though. Keith had his hair pulled back sloppily and just for convenience, and Lance found it weirdly hot. He controlled himself in front of Pidge, though, and simply walked over to wrap his arms around Keith’s stomach.

“Lunch of champions, I see,” Lance observed, perching his head on Keith’s shoulder.

Keith huffed a laugh, leaning back into Lance’s embrace. “Lunch of lazy champions,” he amended, pouring milk in and starting to eat.

“When you’re done, let’s do something,” Lance insisted, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. “I’m bored and need you to entertain me.”

Pidge scoffed from the couch in the other room. “What if I needed him – he’s my soulmate.”

Lance had to step away from Keith so that he could see Pidge on the couch in order to narrow his eyes at her. “But you don’t need me? I’m your soulmate too!”

Pidge just shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I can’t have a favorite.”

Keith had taken advantage of the fact that Lance moved away to sit down and eat his lunch at the table. Lance therefore walked over to drape himself across Pidge’s lap. “You wound me.”

Pidge just moved her arms and laptop to accommodate Lance. “You’ll live.”

They continued to banter and Keith listened with a smile as he ate his cereal. It didn’t take long for Lance to start fidgeting again, which led to Pidge shoving him off her lap and calling out to Keith. “Keith, come get your walnut away from me before I hurt him.”

“I’m allergic to walnuts,” Keith called back, standing to put his bowl in the dishwasher.

He could practically hear Pidge’s eye roll as Lance huffed. “I think I should be offended by that,” Lance observed thoughtfully.

“You know what I mean, you toaster waffle,” Pidge said as Keith walked to the couch. He grinned at her before taking Lance’s hand and pulling him to Keith’s room and out of Pidge’s firing range.

“So what do you want to do?” Keith asked, lounging on his bed and watching Lance take in the room around him. Lance had never been inside before, and Keith had to remind himself that they were soulmates. Lance wouldn’t judge him based on his room.

True to form, no comments were forthcoming. Lance shrugged, draping himself across Keith’s lap this time. “I dunno, that’s why I need you to entertain me. Is there a match on?”

Keith shook his head as he moved a hand to play with Lance’s hair. “Not till tomorrow afternoon.”

“How’d Arsenal do?”

Keith scowled. “Same as always – we can’t capitalize on anything. I really don’t get it; I mean we have the talent. Even if one of them wants to get the hell out of dodge. But we just keep being average and we could be actual contenders.”

They ended up talking their way through the afternoon and Lance couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him when he saw the time. He was comfortable and definitely didn’t want Keith to stop the soothing motions of his hand in Lance’s hair.

“You alright?” Keith asked, leaning to look at Lance’s face.

Lance sighed again. “I need to get going – I promised Mamá that I would help her clean the house this evening. But I don’t want to go.”

“You promised your mom,” Keith pointed out, pushing Lance’s shoulder to get him to get up. But Lance just wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist and whined, causing Keith to laugh and switch to poking him in the side.

Lance shrieked and rolled off the bed, hitting the ground with a thud. “Rude!”

Keith just shrugged as he got up, unrepentant. Lance pouted a moment, but brightened when Keith leaned down to kiss his head. “Hey, you should come over for dinner today!”

Keith helped Lance get up before responding so that Lance couldn’t pout on the floor of his room. “Sorry, I can’t today.” Lance stuck out his lower lip, but Keith dragged him out into the main room and Pidge jumped in to the conversation.

“No! I claimed him this evening,” she said, pointing to Lance. “You snooze, you lose.”

“But he needs to meet my family before my family comes over!” Lance protested. Keith and Pidge just looked at him for a moment, and then Lance realized how strange that sentence was. “I mean, he needs to meet my parents and siblings before all of the rest of my family comes over for Christmas.”

Pidge looked to Keith, who shrugged. “I don’t have anything planned tomorrow evening, would dinner then be alright?”

Lance nodded, smiling and pulling him into a hug. “That works, I’ll tell Mamá. See you then!” He leaned in for a kiss and Keith obliged him, to the groans of Pidge. He made sure to give her a cheery wave and left them to their plans.

Pidge was leaving for her parents’ house the following afternoon, so she and Keith took advantage of their evening together to gang up and dominate Overwatch. Keith did keep an eye on his phone, though, and whenever he had a free moment he responded to Lance’s eloquent texts that complained about cleaning.

The next morning, Keith was woken up by his brother prodding him in the shoulder. When he opened his eyes, Shiro was smiling so Keith swatted at him and rubbed his eyes.

“Bug off, what are you doing here?” Keith grumbled. “Your flight’s not till the afternoon!”

Shiro scoffed, so Keith removed one hand from his face to look up. “It _is_ the afternoon,” he elaborated. Keith was momentarily surprised, but he and Pidge had been up very late so he supposed sleeping this late wasn’t all that surprising.

“Get up, Allura wants to have lunch before you drive us to the airport,” Shiro continued, leaving Keith’s room. Keith was going to get ready slowly just to annoy Shiro, but he looked at the time and saw that it was about an hour before Pidge wanted to leave so he threw a sweatshirt on and went to wake her up.

“Pidge,” he called as he walked into her room, not bothering to knock. “You wanted to leave in an hour – get up.”

“You’re not my real mom,” came the disgruntled reply.

Keith snorted and poked at the lump under the blankets. “No, but your real mom is going to be upset when you’re not home when you promised that you would be.”

Pidge groaned, long and heartfelt, but she did sit up. “Fine. How late were we even up last night?”

Keith shrugged as he started making his way back out of her room. “I dunno – the last time I remember seeing a clock was when I took the pizza rolls out of the oven. That was at 3:30am.”

Pidge nodded, running her hands through her hair to stop it sticking straight out. “Yeah, and that was right before those morons wouldn’t leave us alone so it was at least another hour and a half until we properly taught them their lesson. Ugh, no wonder I’m tired.”

Keith grunted in agreement and went back to his own room to find jeans. “Oh, and Shiro and Allura are here,” he called out to Pidge.

“It’s a good thing you gave me a spare key after all, huh?” Shiro called back, obviously having listened to their conversation. Keith flapped a hand at his smug grin as he brushed his hair and put on deodorant. They heard how late he had been up, so Shiro and Allura couldn’t judge him for being lazy getting ready.

Before they left, Keith gave Pidge a quick hug and handed her a printed paper. “Have a great break. There’s your code for another year of PlayStation Plus. Merry Christmas.”

Pidge handed him an almost identical paper. “And here’s yours. Merry Christmas. Let me know when you have some time and I’ll hop online.”

Shiro watched the exchange with a smirk. “I still don’t get why you both get each other the exact same thing. Why don’t you just buy it for yourselves?”

Keith shook his head as he put his paper next to his computer. “That’s not really in the spirit of the season,” he admonished his brother as he put on shoes.

“Yeah,” Pidge agreed as she packed up her PS4. “It’s Christmas, Shiro.”

“Ok, ok.” He raised his hands in surrender. “You guys have a system; I won’t make too much fun of you. Have a good Christmas, Pidge – tell your family we say hi.”

Pidge saluted and Keith made his way to Shiro’s car. He drove them to Allura’s favorite restaurant near campus and then it was time to head to the airport. It was a long drive from Keith’s apartment, but it was cheaper to leave their car with Keith rather than at the airport so he didn’t complain. At the airport drop-off, Keith helped Shiro unload the bags and then the good byes started.

“Have a great trip,” he said, hugging Allura. “Enjoy your time with your family.”

“I will do my best,” she assured him, stepping back so that he could hug Shiro.

“Have a good week,” Shiro said. “We’ll let you know when we have internet so we can chat.”

“Sounds good,” Keith agreed. When he stepped away, Allura held out a wrapped box. He blinked at it a moment before frowning at them both. “I thought we agreed no presents this year,” he reminded them. They made that agreement knowing that Shiro and Allura’s trip would be costly. Keith had still put in extra hours to get them a gift card to a restaurant so that they could have a nice dinner with just the two of them. He’d slipped the card into their bags while helping unload the car, though, so they didn’t know about that yet.

“It’s just something small,” Allura promised. “We didn’t spend a lot on it.”

Keith still had his eyes narrowed as he took the box, but smiled. “If you say so. Now go – I don’t want you to miss your flight.”

He waved them off and drove back to his apartment. Pidge’s car was gone, so he pulled into her spot and carried his present upstairs. He wasn’t sure if he should open it yet – they hadn’t told him to wait till Christmas or anything.

He hadn’t decided by the time he entered his apartment so he placed it under the small tree that he and Pidge had set up between their TVs. This restraint only lasted long enough for Keith to input the code from Pidge into his PlayStation account, though, and then he was tearing off wrapping paper.

When he opened the box, he felt his jaw drop. It was a frame, and inside was the sports page of the school’s newspaper. The headline just said “Champions!” and the picture was of Lance and Keith. It had been taken when they celebrated Keith’s goal – Lance had lifted Keith up in a hug and Keith’s soul-tat arm was raised in victory. It was a great picture, and Keith felt himself smiling widely. He cleared off a space for the frame on his desk and took a picture of it to send to Shiro and Allura once they were off their plane.

While he was holding his phone, a text came through from Lance.

 **The Tailor:** Hey when were you free this evening?  
**The Tailor:** I’m getting ready to head to my house, if you’re ready to join.  
**The Tailor:** If not I can just send the address when you are.  
**Star Boy:** I’m free now.  
**Star Boy:** What should I wear?  
**The Tailor:** I’m sure whatever you’re wearing now is fine.  
**Star Boy:** You don’t know what I’m wearing.  
**Star Boy:** I could be wearing nothing.  
**The Tailor:** If you’re wearing nothing then you are explaining to my family why we’re late.

It wasn’t that long of a drive to Keith’s apartment, so Lance had to pause a moment and control his red face. They had only been officially dating for two weeks, but Lance couldn’t help imagining what Keith would look like without clothes.

“Ok, stop that,” Lance told himself. “You’re going to be eating dinner with your mother – not the time for thoughts like that.”

That helped – back under control, Lance drove to pick up Keith (who was, in fact, wearing clothes when Lance knocked on the door). On the way to his house, Lance prepared Keith by telling him stories about his family. And he was fairly sure that worked – at least Keith seemed less stressed when they pulled into the driveway than he had been when Lance first picked him up.

Gabbi must have been watching from the front window because before the car was even in park she was striding out of the house. She barely spared Lance a grin before she went to greet Keith.

“Keith! It’s good to see you again!” She pulled Keith into a hug, and while it still didn’t seem like he quite knew what to do when being hugged Keith did bring his arms up to grip Gabbi back. Lance gave him a thumbs up from behind her back.

When she started to pull him inside, Lance pulled a face and followed. “Hey! Where’s my hug?”

Gabbi just reached up to pat him on the head. “I’ve seen you more than I’ve seen Keith.”

He couldn’t argue that, but he still stuck close as Gabbi showed Keith to where Lance’s mom was finishing up dinner so that he could greet her.

“Keith!” Lance’s mom enveloped him in a hug and Keith could already tell that he was going to have to get used to this – Lance came from a family of huggers. “I’m so glad that you’re here. Do you like papas rellenas?”

She had released him from the hug but still held him close by his shoulders so he couldn’t look to Lance for help on what papas rellenas were. “Erm, I don’t think I’ve ever had any.”

She nodded and released him, turning back to the stove. “Alright – we have different levels of heat and spicy so you can choose which you would like best.”

Keith nodded and was dragged away by Lance to meet the rest of the family. He was terrible with names, so thankfully Lance’s immediate family wasn’t overly large. He met Lance’s twin older brothers, Marco and Alex, in one go. They were huddled over something in their room, and when Lance introduced him as simply “Keith” twin smiles took over their faces. Before Keith could turn to ask Lance if he should be afraid, one twin pulled Keith close and the other boxed out Lance.

“So, you’re Lance’s romantic soulmate, aren’t you?” Alex-or-Marco said. Keith nodded. “So how did you two find out? Lance told us that it was love at first sight.”

“I did not!” Lance protested from where he was still being detained by Marco-or-Alex.

Keith snorted. “Yeah, right. I was pretty sure that he hated me and then we hit heads during practice one day. Suddenly my arm’s all cosmo-ed out and he’s stripping to try and see his back.”

Both twins guffawed and Lance took advantage of their distraction to pull Keith out of the room. “I hate you both,” he declared, scowling when he saw Keith’s wide smile. “I would hate you too if you weren’t so cute.”

Keith was used to Lance’s casual flirting by now, so he only laughed – up until he was introduced to Lance’s dad. Keith’s smile faltered when Lance’s dad didn’t change expression and just looked at Keith sternly. The stare-off didn’t have time to get awkward, though, because Lance groaned loudly.

“Da, don’t scare Keith off,” he implored. “Alex and Marco have already embarrassed me, just let Keith enjoy being here.”

At his son’s request, Lance’s dad smiled and shook Keith’s hand. “It really is wonderful to meet you, Keith. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable – Lance is the youngest of my children and he’s also the first to find his romantic so he’s getting the first rounds of teasing.”

Keith smiled back at this assurance that he wasn’t hated by any of the family. “Oh, I understand that. My parents and I teased my brother when he first found his romantic too.”

Lance groaned again and pulled Keith away to help set the table. “Ugh, I regret bringing him over now – all that’s going to happen is everyone ganging up on me.”

“You didn’t invite him, though,” Gabbi interjected when she brought them plates to set. Lance looked at her in confusion so she elaborated. “Mamá did – you’re the one that finally decided to share your soulmate with your family.”

Lance just groaned louder but he couldn’t help the smile that grew when he heard Keith laughing with his family. He was really glad that Keith seemed to be feeling comfortable.

During dinner, Lance’s family shared stories and Lance watched in amazement as Keith ate the hottest of the croquetas with a smile. Lance couldn’t even handle that heat – his mom made those just for his dad. And, apparently, now Keith too.

As Lance drove them back, Keith really didn’t want the evening to end. Lance’s mom had given him a hug and his siblings said that they were excited he would be spending Christmas with them. He was content and didn’t know how to ask Lance if he would be okay prolonging their time together.

“So,” he began awkwardly. “You staying with your family for break?”

Lance paused in his singing along with the radio to shake his head. “Nah, not for all of it. Tomorrow I need to finish up my shopping and then Thursday I’ll get everything wrapped up before we head back over.”

“Thursday?” Keith repeated. Thursday was only Christmas Eve – he thought that he wouldn’t go back until Christmas Day after the family had opened presents and done whatever family stuff it was that they did for the holiday.

Lance just nodded, not waiting for Keith to point out that he had the wrong day. “Yeah, we’ll head over Thursday evening so that we can open presents early Friday before the rest of the family comes over. That’s when it’ll get really crazy,” he said with a smile as he put his car in park outside Keith’s building. “But hey – thanks to you I get to stay in my own room this year so we can always hide there if you want to.”

Keith hadn’t quite processed the implications so he suddenly didn’t care that he was nervous and just asked. “Do you want to come up? We could hang some more…”

He started to trail off awkwardly but Lance lit up. “Sure! And it’s only our second date.” He turned off his car with a wink and got out with Keith. As they started upstairs, Keith thought about how to ask and ended up just blurting out his question. “Am I really staying with your family overnight?”

Lance looked at Keith, who avoided his eyes and unlocked his door. “Of course.” He took off his shoes and thought about how quiet Keith had been on the drive back. “Unless… you don’t want to,” he continued, sitting on the couch. Now he was the one that couldn’t meet Keith’s eyes – he had been looking forward to spending the extra time with him over the holiday week that Keith staying in his room would provide. “I mean, you can just drive over every day if you’d prefer.”

“Every day?” Keith’s voice was even more surprised at that so Lance looked up. They were both seated on the couch and Keith’s eyes were wide.

Lance frowned. “Wait – I told you that my family spends the week between Christmas and New Year’s together, didn’t I?” Keith nodded. “So did you want to drive over? I mean, I have a big enough bed to share with you but if you don’t want to do that yet–”

“That’s fine,” Keith cut him off, slightly pink in the face. “I didn’t think you’d want me for the whole week, though. Shouldn’t I just go over on Christmas afternoon and then like one other day during the week?”

Ah, there it was. Lance twisted to face Keith and held both hands in his own. “Keith, you’re invited to spend Christmas with my family. That means the whole deal. If you don’t want that, then that’s fine. But my family wants you there. _I_ want you there.”

The pink spread, but so did Keith’s smile. “If you’re sure.”

Lance nodded emphatically. “Definitely. Aside from getting to spend time with you and getting you to meet my family, the plan is for you to share my room which means I won’t be kicked out by tío José and tía Katy. You have to help me out,” Lance begged with a grin, holding Keith’s hands to his chest. “I always get kicked out of by room when family visits – I want to sleep in my bed!”

Keith laughed. “Alright then, I suppose I can help you out.”

“Yay!” Lance cheered, pulling Keith into a quick kiss. They didn’t separate for long, though, before Keith pulled him in for another. That one started off soft, but Lance took a chance and licked Keith’s lips. With a soft gasp that shot straight up Lance’s spine, Keith’s mouth opened and Lance took advantage of that to explore Keith’s mouth with his tongue. In response, Keith pushed him back so that he was sitting with his back against the back of the couch and Keith straddling his lap. Hands roamed under shirts and Lance felt his throat vibrate in a moan when Keith’s fingers brushed against his abs.

Lance was about to see if Keith wouldn’t mind getting rid of their pesky shirts when his phone vibrated in his pocket. They both jumped, and Keith nearly fell to the floor. Lance laughingly helped him regain his balance and sit back on the couch before digging out his phone.

“Mamá wants to make sure we made it safely,” he told Keith, who leaned his head on Lance’s shoulder and looked to be in danger of falling asleep.

“Well, I did,” he said, eyes closed.

Lance smiled and kissed his forehead. “Yup, and you look tired so I should get going so that we can sleep.” Keith’s eyes were still closed but his mouth turned down into a pout. Lance breathed a laugh. “We can pick back up where we left off later,” he promised. That made Keith smile, and they shared one more kiss before Lance left to drive back to his own apartment.

The following day as Lance belted out Christmas songs while driving to the various stores he needed to visit, Keith paced in his living room and wondered what on Earth he should get for Lance’s family. He wished that he could ask Shiro, but he’d gotten a message from Allura that they were landed safely so he didn’t want to disturb them. They were going to video chat later, but then again he hadn’t told them about what all Lance’s invitation contained so he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with the teasing just yet. As far as they knew, he was just going over for Christmas dinner.

Thank God Pidge wasn’t there – Keith knew that she would give him all sorts of hell for literally Googling “good Christmas gifts when you don’t know the person”, but he really didn’t know most of Lance’s family. He couldn’t even do the basic route and buy a bottle of wine for them to share because he wasn’t twenty-one!

Lance was, though…

 **Star Boy:** Do you think you could get me a bottle of wine?  
**Star Boy:** If you’re still out.  
**Star Boy:** I’ll pay you back.  
**The Tailor:** Sure thing! Any preferences?  
**Star Boy:** Not really – something your family likes maybe?  
**The Tailor:** You got it  <3

Lance grinned to himself as he pocketed his phone. He’d never pegged Keith as a wine drinker, but his last text confirmed that it wasn’t for himself. Lance grabbed a bottle of his parents’ favorite wine – sure that they would thank Keith for the thoughtful present – and checked out. He stopped by Keith’s apartment to drop it off, and then it was time to fight with wrapping paper. 

Lance did not wrap presents very prettily. He knew that, and he didn’t mind that – instead he enjoyed making the weirdest-shaped lumps out of his presents and adding many layers so that the recipient never knew whether they were tearing off the final layer or not. He especially enjoyed doing this to Alex and Marco, but with different amounts of layers for each brother.

When Lance picked up Keith on Christmas Eve, Keith had a duffel bag and two wrapped gifts. Compared to Lance’s full suitcase and car boot full of presents, it didn’t seem like a lot but he supposed that Keith could get away with his usual sweatshirt and jeans for most of the week.

“You ready?” he asked once Keith was settled.

“I guess,” Keith responded with great confidence.

Lance smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss. “It’ll be great. Let’s go!”

Lance made Keith help carry everything inside since Lance had so much more than Keith. It seemed that no one was watching from the windows this time – they made it to the front door without being greeted. Inside the house was the picture of a homey Christmas and Lance felt any tension he had been carrying melt away. Silent Night was playing on the radio, it smelled like his mom was making his favorite chocolate mint cookies, and the lights on the tree twinkled at him. Lance couldn’t help the smile that overtook his face, and he led the way to the tree so that he and Keith could drop off their presents and greet family.

Once upstairs to drop off luggage, Keith pretended to be looking for something in his bag so that Lance would go back downstairs without him. Once he was gone, Keith sat on the bed and just breathed. Even after he’d been adopted by Shiro’s family he never really had a traditional family Christmas. Both his parents were only children, so their Christmases were a morning of gift exchanging and then by the afternoon it was a normal day. Just walking into Lance’s house was like stepping into a cliché movie, and Keith loved it.

It wasn’t long before Lance poked his head back in the room. “Dinner’s ready, you hungry?”

After dinner and an evening of surprisingly competitive board gaming with the family, Keith was laying with his head on Lance’s chest and listening to his heartbeat.

As well as his breathing. He kept taking in a deep breath like he was going to say something and then not speaking. After the fifth time, Keith intervened. “You’re thinking too loudly. Just say it.”

Lance let out a breath and shoved Keith’s shoulder lightly. “I just don’t want you to take it the wrong way. Like, this has already been the best Christmas ever and it’s only Christmas Eve.”

Keith grinned as he shook his head. “Spit it out Lance. If you don’t want me to take it the wrong way, I’ll give you time to explain yourself.”

Lance breathed out sharply once more before he spoke. “How would you feel about pretending to not be together when the rest of my family is here?”

Keith leaned away slightly so that he could look at Lance’s face. He seemed nervous enough, so Keith pushed back his own nerves that flared at that statement. “Why do you ask?”

Lance held on to Keith’s hand but didn’t quite look at him. “My family here – they know that I’m not as straight as an arrow but the rest of my family is a lot more conservative and I haven’t told them that my romantic is… well… _you_ yet because I’m not sure how they’d react.”

Keith nodded. His own parents had been supportive as well, but he understood not wanting to tell the whole world.

Lance hurried on when Keith didn’t immediately start speaking. “And I don’t want you to think that me asking this means that I don’t want to be seen with you or that I don’t want you or anything stupid like that because I really do like you and I’m so glad that you’re my soulmate but–”

“Lance,” Keith cut him off, moving so that he was perched on his elbow and holding Lance’s face in his hands. “You waited two years for me. I can pretend for a week for you.”

Lance smiled and looked like he was going to start talking again so Keith didn’t let him and leaned in for a kiss. “Now go to sleep.”

Lance laughed softly as Keith got resettled. “But it’s Christmas Eve, Keith! I never sleep well on Christmas Eve – I would always stay awake as long as I could to try and hear Santa Claus.”

Keith snorted. “I honestly never believed in Santa.”

Lance gasped. “That explains everything!” Keith shoved him lightly and Lance laughed. “But seriously – your parents were _those_ parents, huh?”

Keith really wasn’t sure what Lance was talking about, so he just grunted. Lance launched into stories about him and his siblings and the Christmases of the past. Keith would apologize later, but he enjoyed listening to Lance’s voice and fell asleep without really listening to the stories.

Keith woke up to Lance shaking his shoulders. Definitely not expecting this, Keith looked around to see what was wrong before he managed to find Lance’s face in the darkness. “What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Christmas morning, Keith!” Lance cheered.

Keith looked at his phone to see that it was 6:03am. “Holy God, Lance, why did you wake me up at six in the morning just to tell me something I already know?” He tried to flop back down on the bed, but Lance was back to shaking his shoulder. He leaned so that one eye could open and stared Lance down. “What.”

Lance’s grin was wide enough that Keith could see it in the dark room. “C’mon, let’s go see what Santa brought!”

Keith narrowed his one open eye. “Lance, Santa has literally never brought me a single present. I doubt he’s going to show up suddenly at your house to bring me something now that I’m twenty years old.”

Lance shook his head. “You’re such a party pooper. If you don’t believe, then you don’t get the presents. That’s the rule in this house, and we can’t have that.” He started pulling (gently, thankfully) on Keith’s arm. “C’mon!”

Keith rolled his face back into the pillow and groaned, but accepted that Lance wasn’t going to let him go back to sleep so he rolled off the bed and pulled on the first sweatshirt he touched. Lance waited for Keith at the door and had to give himself a moment to blink and enjoy the sight of Keith in one of Lance’s sweatshirts. It was unexpectedly domestic and adorable, so Lance gave him a quick kiss at the door before leading the way down to the tree. Alex and Marco were already examining the scene when they arrived, and Lance was sure that it wouldn’t be long before Gabbi joined them.

They had been doing this since they were little. Lance’s parents realized that they could deflect their energy and sleep longer if they let the kids see the tree, so the rule was that they could look and poke at the presents but nothing was to be opened until everyone was awake. This meant that Lance and his siblings woke up every Christmas morning and gathered to guess what their presents were while drinking hot chocolate. Some years were easier, like the year Marco got his skateboard, and Lance usually got something soccer-themed every year. Gabbi appeared while Lance was trying to help guess what was in a particularly large box for Alex and went into the kitchen with Marco to get the hot chocolate started.

“By the way, Lance,” Marco called as he got up. “Mamá grabbed your old stocking for Keith to use.” He pointed to the mantle and, sure enough, Lance’s old stocking was hanging there.

“Why?” he groaned. “You and Alex have old stockings that aren’t nearly as embarrassing.” Lance’s old stocking was from when he was six years old and thought that he was artistic. Looking at it now, it was just mildly painful to look at. He turned to Keith to apologize that he had to use that one but Keith was just staring at the mantle, mouth slightly open.

“I have a stocking?” he asked quietly.

“Of course,” Lance replied, smiling. “Sorry you have to use my ugly old one.”

“And we can already tell you two things that are inside,” Gabbi observed, reappearing with mugs for Lance and Keith. When Keith looked at her in surprise, she explained. “We’ve all got a toothbrush and an orange. The toothbrush is a family tradition from our dad’s side – growing up he always got a toothbrush in his stocking so now we do too. And the orange is from our mom’s side – the same idea but oranges instead of toothbrushes. So now we get one of each in our stockings every Christmas.”

Keith smiled at the explanation and sat down on the couch so Lance returned to his speculation with his siblings. They hadn’t figured everything out by the time his parents woke up, so there were still plenty of surprises to be had as presents were opened. And, as much as he appreciated everything that he received, Lance’s favorite present was definitely the framed sports page from Keith.

“It wasn’t even my original idea,” Keith said self-consciously. “Shiro and Allura gave me one, and I thought that you might like it–”

Lance cut him off by pulling him in for a kiss. “It’s great, I love it,” he promised with a smile.

Lance’s mom went to start on breakfast while the rest of them cleaned up the wrapping paper carnage in the living room. After it was mostly cleaned up, Keith went into the kitchen as well so Lance took his own and Keith’s presents up to his room to get them out of the way. When he went back downstairs, Keith had his sleeves pushed up and was helping Lance’s mom cook so Lance sat at the kitchen table and talked with them both as they made pancakes.

Some family was coming from farther away, but the closest was only an hour away so Lance and Keith had barely changed after breakfast when the front door opened and voices filtered upstairs. From there, it was a steady stream of people arriving and chatter until lunch. Lance introduced Keith to everyone and Keith quickly forgot all of the names as he smiled and said that he was Lance’s teammate from school and that the color on his hand was from his soul-tat with his brother.

A little after lunch, Keith got a text from Allura that she and Shiro were ready to chat if he was. He excused himself, letting Lance know that he would be in the room if they needed him for whatever reason.

Away from the chaos, Keith gave himself a moment to enjoy the quiet before pulling up his computer to video call Shiro.

As soon as it connected, Keith heard Allura. “Happy Christmas!” Then the picture came up and he saw that they were both in front of a ginormous tree.

“Merry Christmas,” he responded with a smile, wondering why Shiro was squinting at the screen.

“Since when have you been a Broadway fan?” he asked, confusing Keith.

“I mean, I don’t mind it. Why are you asking me?”

“There’s a Hamilton poster behind you – so unless you’ve become a huge theater nerd since Tuesday when I saw your room last and there was no Hamilton poster, you’re not in your room.”

Keith twisted and sure enough, the wall behind him was covered in theater posters. “Oh, I’m at Lance’s house. This is his room – it’s loud downstairs so up here you can hear me.”

Allura smiled, but Shiro still looked confused and spoke before she could. “Why are you over there already? I thought that you weren’t heading over till later.”

Keith considered lying for a moment and just saying that he had simply been told to come over earlier. But when they talked later on in the week, they would figure out pretty quickly that he still wasn’t in his own room. “Well, apparently an invitation to family Christmas with the de la Cruzes means an invitation to stay for the whole week. So I’m here till New Year’s.”

Shiro’s mouth curled into a smirk, but this time Allura spoke first. “Oh, that’s exciting! You’ll have a wonderful time, I’m sure!”

Keith smiled back. “Yeah, it’s already been great. I even had a stocking, like from Santa.”

Shiro snorted. “I did too, here. Allura had to hand it to me – I didn’t realize that it wasn’t just for decoration.”

“I know that we realized a long time ago how different our Christmases were from others’,” Keith observed. “But this is even weirder than I thought it would be.”

“Tell me about it.” Shiro nodded.

Allura patted him on the shoulder. “You’re doing wonderful, darling. And I’m sure you are too, Keith,” she turned to face the camera. “Thinking of presents, though, thank you very much for our gift card!”

“Oh yeah,” Shiro joined in. “Thanks for that. You didn’t have to.”

Keith shrugged. “But I wanted to.”

He quickly deflected the attention away from himself and asked what all they had been up to and what the plans were for the rest of the visit. It was dinner time for them, though, so they didn’t talk for much longer before they had to go. Keith was glad that he hadn’t been questioned about staying at Lance’s, but the look Shiro gave as they hung up promised many questions their next chat.

With that to look forward to, Keith went back downstairs to find that even more family had arrived.

“Hey! How’s Shiro?” Lance asked when he saw Keith again.

“He’s good, he and Allura say hi,” Keith relayed their message.

“Shiro?” One of Lance’s cousins interjected. “Like Takashi Shirogane?”

“Yeah, he’s my brother.”

The cousin frowned. “I went to middle school with him, I don’t remember him having a brother.”

Keith simply shrugged. “Well, when he was in middle school he didn’t have a brother.”

The cousin was still confused, but Keith saw Lance doing the math and so he saw the moment that the truth clicked in his head. The cousin looked ready to ask more questions but Lance quickly changed the subject. Keith shot him a grateful glance as he was dragged into a board game by Gabbi.

Lance was glad that his family arrived in the order that they did. The calmer families came first, and then once they all had time to catch up the loud, opinionated, and generally not calm families descended upon the house. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his family, he really did. He was just glad that they only saw these portions of the family for Christmas.

“Lance!” a booming voice called out.

Lance smiled. “Hey, tío Jaime.” He would have said more, but he was pulled into a lung-deflating hug and needed a moment to get oxygen back in his body.

“It’s so good to see you,” a high voice said – tía Andrea was here. Which meant…

“Carlos, you really must work on your posture. And Rosa! Why would you let your daughter out of the house with a skirt that short?”

Abuela.

“Lancito! Look at you.” She wasn’t that big, but Abuela still managed to push her way past tío Jaime to pull Lance closer to her.

“Hola, Abuela,” he greeted her, resigned to her inspection.

“You’re still too skinny,” she admonished. “But I suppose girls might like that. Have you met your romantic yet?”

“Not yet,” Lance lied, eternally grateful that his soul-tat was easily cover-able.

Abuela opened her mouth, no doubt to tell him just how to meet The Girl For Him, but before she could speak Keith appeared at Lance’s side. “Hey, Lance, your mom wanted you to–”

“Who are you?” Abuela cut him off, making Keith jump slightly and regard her with wide eyes.

Lance jumped in. “Abuela, this is Keith – he’s one of my teammates at school and he’s spending Christmas with us.”

“Why aren’t you with your own family?” tía Andrea asked. Lance sighed internally – this was going to be a long week.

Keith seemed to take it all in stride. “My brother is travelling with his romantic this Christmas, so Lance was nice enough to invite me over so that I wouldn’t be spending the holiday alone.”

“What about your parents?” tío Jaime put in.

Lance winced but Keith only shrugged. “They died last year. So, Lance, your mom–”

“Is that a soulmate tattoo on your hand?” Once again, Abuela cut off Keith as he tried to speak. Lance was never going to find out what his mom wanted at this rate.

Keith nodded, but put his hand inside the sweatshirt pocket. Good etiquette was to let the person show you their soul-tat, not to ask about it. For people whose soul-tats were in places that were hard to hide, like Keith, you were supposed to pretend that you didn’t see it until they specifically showed you.

“Yeah, my brother is my platonic soulmate,” Keith responded. “Lance, your mom wants you to help her in the kitchen.”

Lance nodded, “You better come too – you’re probably more help than I am.” He smiled at the family gathered around him and Keith as he dragged his soulmate away from his rude and overbearing family.

“Sorry,” he muttered once they were out of earshot. “They’re probably going to be questioning you all week.”

Keith just shrugged again. “It’s fine – I didn’t have any soul-tats for a while and people were even ruder about that.”

Lance was at least eighty-three percent sure that Keith had grown up an orphan, now, so that comment felt loaded. But he didn’t have time to ask Keith further because his mom needed help finishing up dinner. Once they were all seated around the four packed dinner tables and grace was said, Keith just listened to the three different conversations going on at his table alone as he ate. It hadn’t even been a full day, and it was already a much louder holiday week than Keith had ever had with the Shiroganes.

Thankfully the family members that asked uncomfortable questions weren’t sitting near Keith for this dinner so he was able to enjoy talking with one of Lance’s uncles about soccer and the Premier League season.

Alone again in Lance’s room, Keith could practically feel Lance’s questions bubbling up. “You’re thinking too loud again,” he complained.

“Shiro’s not your brother by blood, is he?” Lance asked, the words spilling out quickly.

“Nope,” Keith affirmed. “I didn’t meet him or my parents until I was thirteen. Almost fourteen.”

“So you… your other parents…”

“Never knew them. If they’re alive, they didn’t want me. I grew up in foster care.”

Lance sighed and held Keith closer. “So when you said that you never believed in Santa, that wasn’t because of your parents?”

“Santa doesn’t visit group homes.”

Lance buried his face in Keith’s hair, tightening his hold. Keith was telling him about how he didn’t have a soul-tat at all until he met Shiro, and Lance didn’t know what to think about that. He’d always known that Alex was his soulmate – he couldn’t remember a time where the calavera soul-tat wasn’t on his left shoulder blade. But to have no one for that long – he understood why Keith was so hesitant to get close to him. And he knew that he was going to strive to never let Keith down.

A few days later, Keith was awake before Lance so he pulled a sweatshirt on over his tank top and took his book downstairs. He was not, however, awake before Lance’s mom who was in the kitchen when Keith made it downstairs.

“Good morning,” he greeted her.

“Morning, Keith.” She gave him a smile back. “Would you mind helping me out? I have a lot of potatoes to chop up.”

“Sure thing,” Keith agreed. He set down his book and took off the sweatshirt as she got him a cutting board and knife. They worked in a companionable silence for a while – the radio filling the kitchen instead with soft Christmas music.

Until Abuela woke up, that is. A hand grabbed his arm and made him jump, barely avoiding slicing off a finger or two.

“Goodness, that is quite the soulmate tattoo!” Abuela exclaimed, pulling Keith’s arm closer to her and either not noticing or ignoring the fact that he had a knife in his hand. Apparently the family room had been steadily filling up while Keith was helping Lance’s mom so at Abuela’s comments other family members appeared and looked on in curiosity.

Keith felt himself grow warm. He had never liked being on display – whether because of his lack of soul-tat or now because of how extensive his was. He envied Lance – his soul-tat could be hidden so easily.

Lance had enjoyed a morning of sleeping in, so when he walked downstairs most of the rest of his family was already there. And standing clustered in the kitchen doorway.

Confused, Lance walked closer and blanched when he saw Abuela twisting Keith’s arm around to look at his soul-tat. Lance stood on the outskirts of the small crowd that had formed, ready to save Keith – even if he wasn’t sure how he would manage to do that. But then he heard what Keith was saying.

“Uh, yeah I met my romantic soulmate.”

“Not just your romantic!” Abuela said. “A soulmate tattoo this extensive means that this person is your romantic soulmate as well as a platonic soulmate. There are not many people that have one soulmate who fits both categories.”

Keith’s eyes were wide. “Oh, is that what this means? We weren’t sure.” His eyes locked with Lance’s for a brief moment, softening, before Abuela was speaking again.

“How did you meet her? When soulmates like this meet, there’s an extra feeling of magnetism compared to normal soulmates.”

Keith smiled nervously. He didn’t miss the gender-specific term Abuela had used, and was determined not to slip up for Lance. “Well, we actually hit our heads – that’s how the soul-tat appeared. Erm, we ran into each other and dropped books,” Keith invented wildly. “Then when we went to stand up we hit heads so I don’t really remember any magnetism or anything.”

“What’s her name?” another relative asked. Keith didn’t see who spoke, much less recognize the voice.

“Erm, Lane.”

“What’s she like?”

Keith had no idea why Lance’s family was so invested in his romantic life, but he had figured out by now that if he just answered the questions that they would leave him alone sooner and he just wanted to get back to helping Lance’s mom with breakfast.

“Amazing,” he replied truthfully. “I didn’t really believe in the romantic soulmate stuff until we met – and then it made sense to me. I couldn’t ask for a better romantic soulmate.” He focused on the potatoes in front of him, not wanting to look up because he hadn’t even told Lance these things and he didn’t want to see what Lance was thinking at this revelation.

Lance’s chin was on the ground and his back itched knowingly. He knew that Keith was happy with being his soulmate, but he hadn’t known how strongly Keith felt about it. Especially now that Lance knew what Keith’s life was like before they met. He was immensely flattered – both by the compliments Keith gave his female alter-ego, as well as the fact that Keith was making up relationship facts on the spot because he knew that Lance wasn’t ready to tell all of these family members just yet.

He felt a goofy grin growing on his face, and it only widened when his mom caught his eyes over the crowd and raised her eyebrow in admiration.

Keith continued to chop potatoes and answer soulmate questions as vaguely as possible, but as soon as he was done with the spuds he quickly grabbed his book and sweatshirt and retreated to Lance’s room to get out of the spotlight.

When he opened the door he was planning to just grab a long sleeved shirt to put on, but the door closed suddenly behind him and he found himself pushed up against the door, Lance’s mouth on his own.

Keith wasn’t entirely sure what brought it on, but he wasn’t about to pull away to ask. He leaned over slightly to put his book on the desk next to the door before wrapping his arms around Lance and holding him close.

Lance was ready to stay upstairs together for the rest of the day, but Keith’s stomach chose that point to rumble and common sense prevailed. They broke apart and Lance smiled at Keith’s unsure grin.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Keith said as he stepped away to get the shirt he had been after in the first place. “But any reason for that?”

Lance pulled Keith back into a hug when he was done changing and hid his face in Keith’s shoulder. “I just… I really appreciated everything you said down there.”

Keith gave a soft chuckle. “I meant it all.”

Lance’s family was appeased, so Keith didn’t have to answer too many more uncomfortable questions for a few days. But then he slipped.

It was the morning of the thirtieth, and Keith was awake early. He’d had an unsettling dream, so he was reading on the couch downstairs to relax his mind before the planned trip to the movies later in the day. The first to join him was Gabbi.

“Morning,” she greeted him with a smile, sitting down next to him on the couch. “What have you got there?”

“ _The Princess Bride_ ,” Keith explained, putting his bookmark in and closing the book so he could show her the cover. “Have you ever seen the movie?”

“Oh, I love that movie! I never realized that there was a book.”

“I got it when I was young,” Keith explained. “And it’s been my favorite ever since.”

“My family all loves the movie,” Gabbi continued, pointing to where it was stored in the entertainment unit. She asked Keith to tell her how the book was different, so he was describing chapter three to her when he got a text from Pidge. He didn’t look at it because he was in the middle of a conversation but it drew the attention of tía Andrea.

“Goodness, Keith is this your phone? Why do you have a picture of you and Lance as your lock screen?”

“Uh,” Keith wasn’t able to come up with an answer before tío Jaime had taken the phone and his eyes grew wide.

“And why does this person who sent you a text refer to your romantic soulmate as a he?”

Keith scrambled to come up with something to say but Abuela appeared and he had the feeling of being surrounded. He was working on controlling his breathing and not panicking when Abuela chimed in.

“This makes it look like Lance is your romantic soulmate,” she said.

Keith finally found his voice. “Yeah, we were sitting next to each other on the plane ride home from the championship game and fell asleep. A teammate took a picture and set it as my lock screen as a joke.”

“But why would you leave it and not change it back to a picture of your own romantic?”

“Because we’re romantic soulmates,” Lance butted in.

When Lance had descended the stairs, Keith was talking with Gabbi so Lance had entered the kitchen to get himself some breakfast. He was contentedly eating it when he heard Abuela’s shocked comment. Lance froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth before he rushed back into the family room. Keith looked like a cornered animal and was trying to explain himself out of whatever the rest of the family was pestering him about, and Lance decided that enough was enough. He was tired of hiding, and lying, and putting his romantic soulmate into these situations that obviously made the guy uncomfortable. So he stepped in. Gabbi saw him and quickly got up so that he could sit next to Keith.

The reaction was about what Lance expected.

“Ok, Lance, be serious.”

“No he’s not – you said that you hadn’t met yours yet. She’s still out there.”

“I am serious,” Lance insisted, taking Keith’s hand. “We’re romantic soulmates. We met freshman year and hit heads when we were playing a scrimmage during practice.”

Tía Katy looked like she wanted to ask him for more about that, but Abuela spoke first.

“Lance, stop joking. This is not a joking matter.”

“Good thing I’m not joking,” Lance insisted, not budging from Keith’s side. Keith had regained control of his breath, but he couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but a divide had appeared in the room. Lance’s immediate family stood on one side with tío José and his family. On the other was the rest of the family, and they were the ones interrogating Lance. Keith didn’t want to be the cause of a rift, but it seemed to be too late for that.

“This isn’t natural,” tía Andrea insisted.

“Well, I’m bi so it’s actually perfectly natural for me,” Lance replied.

This statement seemed to shock the interrogators into silence, and Lance’s mom took advantage of that. “Alright, it’s time to get ready for the movies. Lance and Keith – go get ready please.”

Keith knew that she was giving them an easy out so he pulled on the hand that Lance was still holding and got Lance out of the room and away from the judgmental stares of his family.

Once upstairs, Keith sat next to Lance on the bed – neither making a move to get changed. Voices drifted up to them from below, and Lance did his best to not listen. He still heard snippets – it sounded like his dad was fighting for them now.

Lance’s brooding was cut short by a timid knock on the door. He didn’t want to deal with any more preaching, so he was relieved to see that it was tía Katy poking her head in.

“Hey, can I come in?”

Lance nodded. She entered, followed by her daughter Maria. They both had wide smiles.

“We wanted to say congratulations!” Maria said. “We’re so excited for you both – it’s great that you found each other.”

Lance felt the tension leave him as he smiled in return.

“Can we see your soul-tats?” tía Katy asked. Keith immediately obliged, showing off his constellations as Lance pulled off his shirt.

“Look at mine,” he told them, turning to show off his back. “Isn’t it great? Alex is back there, along with my other platonics…” Lance twisted to try and point them out, but he wasn’t flexible enough. He heard Keith laugh and poke his back, showing them off. As Keith talked, Lance felt his nerves fade. He had been afraid that coming out to the rest of his family would mean that none of them would want anything to do with him anymore. But this confirmation that at least some of them still accepted him made his smile return.

Keith felt the tension leave Lance’s shoulders and relaxed himself. He was glad that some of Lance’s family was showing support – not just his own parents and siblings.

Once everyone was ready, the family piled into various cars to head to the movie theatre. Lance and Keith were part of the contingent wanting to see the newest Star Wars movie again, while others of the family decided that they’d rather see Disney’s latest animated feature instead. Lance didn’t let go of Keith’s hand the whole time, and Keith wasn’t usually a fan of PDA but he figured that Lance needed this today. And it made it easier for Keith to angle Lance away from the looks that they were still getting from some of the family.

The rest of the morning and afternoon went by without major incident, but Keith knew that wouldn’t last long. He saw the hushed conversations, the looks, the raised eyebrows. He wouldn’t lie to himself – the thought of leaving and letting Lance get out of his family’s bad graces had crossed his mind. It almost seemed like Lance could sense that, however – immediately after Keith considered that course of action Lance intertwined his hand with Keith’s and led him to sit with tío José and his son Tim. They both wanted to hear about Lance and Keith’s time on their school team, so the conversation kept Keith’s thoughts off of his plan of running away.

The clash happened right before dinner. Lance knew that it was coming; he had just hoped that they would make it through one last meal together.

“It’s not natural!” tío Jaime was saying as Lance returned from a trip to his room to grab a sweatshirt. He sighed to himself and quickly moved to stand near Keith. He wanted to be sure that Keith wasn’t feeling like he was the only one attacked.

Lance’s dad was sticking up for him. “He’s still Lance,” he argued. “You don’t have to understand it, just accept that it’s who he is.”

Abuela shook her head. “You should not be encouraging this, Carlos. He needs to get this silly notion out of his head and settle down with a nice girl who can give him children.”

“It’s not a silly notion, Abuela!” Lance interjected. “We’re soulmates. So what if we can’t have kids? We’ll just adopt.”

Abuela shook her head. “That’s not a real family.”

Keith violently flinched at that and Lance momentarily saw red. Thankfully, his mom stepped in before he could say anything that he would truly regret. “I’m afraid that if you’re going to disrespect my son like this I must ask you to leave my house.”

Tía Andrea gave a high, reedy laugh. “Come on, Rosa. You’re not going to kick out family at Christmas just for telling the truth.”

Lance’s mom simply raised an eyebrow at her. “That goes for you too, Andrea.”

There was a moment of shocked silence, then tía Andrea grabbed tío Jaime’s hand and dragged him out of the room to pack their bags. Abuela followed after looking at Lance’s dad a moment, who didn’t change expression.

Lance’s mom put a hand on his shoulder. “Dinner will be ready in an hour,” she told him softly. Lance nodded and pulled Keith to his room as they heard tío Jaime and tía Andrea telling their kids to pack their things up.

Once alone inside his room, Lance flopped onto the bed. Keith paused at the door a moment before sitting down at the edge of the bed. He knew that none of them would blame him, but he couldn’t help but feel like he had ruined the de la Cruz family’s Christmas. “Do you think–”

Lance knew where Keith was going and cut him off before he could go any further. “I kinda want to take a nap. Would you judge me if I just fell asleep on you?” He mostly really didn’t want to be downstairs when the others left.

Keith smiled. “No, not really.”

“Good.” Lance shuffled over to drape himself across Keith and closed his eyes.

Keith snorted. “Ok, I might judge you if you fall asleep like this. It’s not the most comfortable for me.”

Lance heaved a dramatic sigh but shifted to allow Keith to rearrange himself into a more comfortable position. Keith grabbed his book and let Lance get comfortable.

By the time dinner was ready, tía Andrea’s family was gone along with Abuela. Lance had hoped that they might still be there, but the empty table glared at him accusingly as the plates were set out. It was his fault.

“So, how did you two actually meet and find out?” Maria asked, pulling Lance’s attention away from the accusing empty seats. Keith grinned, he knew that Lance loved telling the story and he hoped that it would pull Lance back out of the mood Keith could feel creeping in.

“So we’re both on the soccer team, right? Well in our first week we were playing against each other in a scrimmage.”

“This is after he decided that he hated me,” Keith interjected, grinning at Lance’s affronted look.

“This is my story! Alright, maybe I decided that I wanted to have a friendly rivalry with him, you know to push us harder.” Keith snorted, which earned him another look from Lance. “But then we were playing against each other and we both went for the same header. Well, we smacked heads and that was the first time we had touched.”

Keith jumped in again when Lance paused for breath. “He pulled his shirt off in the middle of the pitch like a crazy person.”

Everyone laughed at that, and Keith could see Lance’s mood lightening. They were going to be alright.

Compared to the previous day, New Year’s Eve was positively uneventful. Keith was introduced to Speed Gaming – where there were four games set up and everyone rotated through them in 10 minute intervals. It got competitive and loud very quickly, but Keith enjoyed the changeovers where you had to go into a different game and figure out what the people before you had been doing. He and tío José were haggling over resources when an outburst from Lance’s group brought the whole room to a stop. Gabbi was cackling while Lance and Nicholas were arguing about something.

“Babe!” Lance said suddenly, turning to Keith. “Help me out here. Isn’t Empire the best Star Wars movie?”

Keith tilted his head. That group was currently on the game Ticket to Ride – he had no idea why Lance was asking him about Star Wars. “I dunno – I’ve always liked the original movie best of them all.”

Lance gasped and put a dramatic hand on his chest. “How can you say that? Betrayed by my cousin and my romantic all in one go.”

“I’m not saying that they’re better,” Nicholas protested. “I’m just saying that these new movies are on the same level as the original trilogy!”

“I’ve always liked Revenge of the Sith best,” Maria put in from another table. This launched a general argument about what the best movies were and the games were entirely forgotten.

As it drew closer to midnight, the family piled into cars to drive to watch fireworks. Keith wasn’t sure where they would be able to see anything good, but Lance promised him that it would be worth it. They ended up on the coast – the shoreline was rocky and there was a small group of people already there. One of them had a radio on and in the lead up to the countdown it was playing music.

"Ten!"

Lance grabbed Keith's hand.

"Nine!"

He used that hand to pull him close.

"Eight!"

Keith wrapped an arm around Lance.

"Seven!"

Lance responded by wrapping his arm around Keith as well.

"Six!"

They raised their glasses in a toast.

"Five!"

Lance smiled at Keith.

"Four!"

"Happy new year, Keith."

"Three!"

Keith smiled back at Lance.

"Two!"

"Happy new year, Lance."

"One!"

**Author's Note:**

> To make up for writing a whole bunch of short things, here's 15k of a piece with some arts too.
> 
> I has a [tumblr](http://ayrabelle.tumblr.com/).


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